Welcome!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Today's blog isn't about our family so much as a whole, but a focus on Jeff's life.

Growing up, Jeff participated in the Scouts program, and his Scout leader was a guy named Mike "Bucky" Buckmiller; who he's stated "After my parents, Mike's probably the most influential adult in my life.". Jeff's shared a few different stories about him and their scout trip adventures, particularly when they killed a snake and Mike skinned and prepared it for eating, and encouraged the scouts to eat it, however Jeff skipped out on this. He also was influential with Jeff's friends, particularly Brett Wilson who's now a pilot. For one Scout trip, he took the boys flying; which lead Brett to discover his joy of flying, and Mike encouraged Brett to follow his dream, which he has obviously. Mike also encouraged them to get into HAM radios, and while Jeff's liscense expired sometime ago, he's still got a fascination with it, and eventually plans on renewing his license again.

He's also meant alot to the family as a whole, since his career was in Dentistry. He's apparently done a fantastic job in keeping the Hayford Clan's Chompers in good shape, and I know that the family will miss his ministrations.

Sadly though, Mike got lung cancer, and after a long battle, he passed away this passed Tuesday. I didn't know him at all, since I only met him twice, but I know that Jeff is upset about his death, and he's probably going to be crying at the funeral on Saturday, which shows how much he means to Jeff. Jeff is not an emotional guy at all. He didn't cry when we got married, he didn't cry when the girls were born, and he's held back tears at the funerals we've gone to over the past years that we've been together.

Anyway, here's his obituary:

"Michael Bruce Buckmiller Faith and Service Mike, 53, was born June 12, 1955, in Provo, Utah, to John David and Jane Farley Buckmiller. He was a joy to his parents and a great friend to many, including his brothers. He had an abiding testimony of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the infinite power of His Atonement. He greatly valued his family relationships and even remembered fondly his days of weeding his grand-mother's gladiolus patch, despite it being a punishment. He honorably served amongst the people in the Tonga mission. His mission was a positive, life changing experience and he continued to serve the Tongan people through his occupation, maintaining his Tongan language fluency. Mike attended the University of Utah, majoring in Biology. He was a member of the Honor Societies of Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the University of Pacific Dental School and set up his practice serving the people of Salt Lake City. He received a community service award in special recognition for his dental work service to adults with disabilities. Mike married his eternal sweetheart, Jocelyn Goff, on June 21, 1980 in the Salt Lake Temple. Their loving relationship was an example to all of how caring, true, and sweet love can be. Mike was an experienced outdoorsmen. From the time he was a small boy, he loved being out in nature, in particular the Uinta Mountains and the red rocks of Southern Utah. He served as a scoutmaster for over 15 years and received the Scout Master Award of Merit. He was also honored to receive the Silver Beaver Award for distinguished service to youth. Mike knew not only how to work hard and serve others, but also knew how to enjoy life and spend time recreating with his family. He loved waterskiing, fishing, hunting, scuba diving, and visiting the beach. He was a talented photographer and loved researching family history and learning about LDS pioneers. Mike maintained his pilot's license and enjoyed sharing his plane and love of flying with others. He also shared his love for music through singing and felt that music truly was a song of praise unto the Lord.He passed from this world on April 28, 2009 surrounded by his family members, in his home, following a brave and hope-filled battled with cancer. Mike is survived by his wife, Jocelyn, and their children Nicolle Jones (Ben), Emily, and Evan, and grandchild Michael Jones. He will be greatly missed by his father, Jack, stepmother, Carol, brothers, John, Dave, Jim, and Dan, as well as many other family members and friends. He was preceded in death by his mother. The family expresses deep gratitude for the many acts of kindness and compassion expressed through the service of many. A viewing will be held at Larkin Sunset Lawn (2350 East 1300 South), on Friday, May 1st from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 2, at 12:00 noon at the Canyon Rim 2nd Ward Chapel (3100 East 3000 South) with a viewing prior to the funeral from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. Interment will follow at the Holladay Memorial Park Cemetery. Contributions can be made to the LDS Missionary Fund or Perpetual Education Fund. "

You can also follow this link to view his obituary on The Salt Lake Tribune website. I wish Jeff had some pictures of him, but he doesn't.

Monday, April 13, 2009

This is actually our first year of doing Easter with the whole works. Last year, the girls got baskets, but that was about it, considering we had just moved into the apartment easter weekend, so we were too busy to do anything else. But this year in addition to getting baskets, we colored eggs; well just me and Zoe did, Jeff was busy fixing something at the time so he didn't participate.

Here's us coloring eggs. Zoe did such a great job scooping the eggs carefully out of the dye cups and placing them down on the paper towel to dry, and she also helped mix up the dye to color the eggs.

Here's Zoe holding her egg with her name on it. We also did an egg for everyone in the family, as you can see.

Here's all the eggs we colored. We did boil all eighteen eggs that were in the carton; however three of them cracked while boiling, so instead of coloring those, we just ate them.

Here are the girls' baskets. The Easter Bunny decided to leave the baskets outside of their bedroom doors. The pink one is Zoe's, and the purple one belongs to Ruthie. Zoe thought the Easter Mr. Potato head was awesome, so awesome that she liked it enough to be embarassed by liking it so much; something that happens quite frequently. She usually hides herself or just her face if that's the case, and she hid under her table for about 5 minutes before we told her to come out and look at it. Ruthie got two Easter themed Little People toys.

We had Easter dinner at my SIL Melissa's house. It was supposed to be at Jeff's parents' house, but the heating element went out in her stove so she wouldn't have been able to cook dinner. Anyway, Melissa has a row of daffodils in front of her porch, and Zoe LOVES to pick flowers, so she picked a daffodil and like with all flowers.. she had to smell it! I also love the expression on her face in the second picture; especially because somewhere we have a picture of Jeff with the exact same expression on his face, and I'm pretty sure it was a picture taken on Easter as well. I'm not completely sure if I remember the picture correctly; but either way it's pretty funny.

Friday, April 10, 2009

RUTHIE IS NOW WALKING! She turned 14 months old yesterday, and decided today that walking was cool, so she started walking around.

She's still not doing it full time, but she's finally walking around by herself. Eventually she'll get the hang of it and start walking full time.

This is fantastic, because I was starting to get worried. She's a bit behind with certain things when I compare her to Zoe's development, but I have to realize the girls are two seperate beings, and that they are VERY different than each other. I suppose on the flip side, she's done firsts earlier than Zoe did, particularly with saying Mama.

Anyway, I'm EXCITED! Now all she has to do is reach 20 pounds so we can put her in a forward facing carseat. I was lucky enough to be given a gift card by a friend to Babies R Us, and with what I was able to purchace a nicer carseat for Ruthie a few months ago. Mucho loves to my friends R&T H!!!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Here's Zoe when she was about a month and a half old. I know it's not the most flattering picture since she looks so dang funny but it's amazing at how much she's changed since she was a small baby. She was a very chubby infant and it really wasn't until she was about 18 months old that she started slimming down and losing all her baby fat rolls, and she had A TON of them. She was also holding her head up pretty well at this point as you can see, but the look on her face is just hilarious because her head is so round and chubby and she's got little beady eyes. What's funny though is that her clothes are much too big for her even when she was that chunky.

Seeing how she's much older now, it really does amaze me how far she's come from being this little chubby bump on a log to what she is now.. an active, smart and intelligent three year old!